Civics 101 is brought to you in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

If our technology is working, we should next hear a message from our President of the United States.

And so I ask that you use your freedoms and your talents to contribute to the good of our nation

and the world. You now share the obligation to teach our values to others,

to help newcomers assimilate to our way of life and uplift America by living according to

its highest ideals of self-governance. Have you ever been to one of these?

Naturalization ceremonies? No, I haven't. This is where people from other countries become

citizens of the US, right? Have you? I've been to quite a few actually, and they follow a certain

format. There's a reading of the names of the country's present. Nigeria. There's speeches.

Everybody takes an oath, all allegiance and fidelity, and then there's usually a technology snafu,

couple minutes once we get the projector warmed up, and then we have the pre-recorded tape of the

President of the United States welcoming these new Americans. It's an honor and a privilege to

call you a fellow citizen of the United States movement. And the tenor of the speech changes as

the President changes, but one thing remains the same. They hand out a bunch of flags,

and they play it.

Lee Greenwood's 1984 hit, God Bless the USA, also known as,

Froude to Be in America. I'm very familiar. When did they start doing this?

I don't know. I don't know. I called the offices of USCIS, that's the US citizenship and

immigration services, and I was completely unsuccessful in getting through to a human, any human.

The key that you've grasped is not a valid choice on this menu. We will play the message for you again.

I found a home movie of a naturalization ceremony from the early 1990s, and they played it. This goes fast.

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